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FAQs for Making and Canning (or freezing) Homemade
Spaghetti Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes!
Making and canning your own spaghetti sauce is
something families remember years later. No store bought spaghetti sauce
compares with the taste of that made from your own tomatoes from your garden or
fresh-picked from a local farm! In the middle of the winter, you can make
a meal with your spaghetti sauce and taste the summer flavor of fresh tomatoes.
- Q. Can you mix the type of tomatoes you have for the sauce? I
have several Roma type and also Big Boys. I don't want to use all of my
Roma's on just one type of sauce so I wondered if I could mix the two types
since I have a TON of regular tomatoes?
A. Yes, there's no problem mixing types of tomatoes. Of course, the
Roma or "paste-type" tomatoes have thicker walls with less water, so they
don't need to be cooked down as much to make a thick sauce, but other than
that, there's no problem. Use whatever type of tomatoes you have!
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Home Canning Kits
This is the same type of standard canner that my grandmother
used to make everything from applesauce to jams and jellies to tomato and
spaghetti sauce. This complete kit includes everything you need and
lasts for years: the canner, jar rack, jar grabber tongs,
lid lifting wand, a plastic funnel,
labels, bubble freer, and the bible of canning, the Ball Blue Book. It's
much cheaper than buying the items separately. You'll never need anything else except jars & lids! To see more canners, of different styles, makes and prices, click here!For more information
and current pricing:
Click here for
a larger photo, more information, pricing, ordering, etc.
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Summary - Cost of Making Homemade
Spaghetti Sauce - makes
7 pint jars, 16 oz each*
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| Item |
Quantity |
Cost in 2005 |
Source |
Subtotal |
| Tomatoes |
20 -
25 lbs (to make about 16 cups of prepared tomato) |
free
from the garden, or $0.50 cents at a PYO |
Garden |
$0.00 |
| Canning jars (pint
size, wide mouth), includes lids and
rings |
7 jars |
$8.00/dozen |
Grocery stores, like Publix, Kroger and Safeway and local "big box" stores; sometimes Big Lots and even hardware stores |
$4.50 |
| seasoning |
See
step 7 |
$2.00? |
Grocery stores, like Publix, Kroger and Safeway and local "big box" stores |
$2.00 |
| Spaghetti mix |
1
packet |
$3.00 per
package |
Grocery stores, like Publix, Kroger and Safeway and local "big box" stores; sometimes Big Lots and even hardware stores |
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| Total |
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$6.50 total
or about $0.95 per jar INCLUDING the jars - which you can
reuse! |
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* - This assumes you already have the pots, pans, ladles, and
reusable equipment. Note that you can reuse the jars! Many
products are sold in jars that will take the lids and rings for
canning. For example, Classico Spaghetti sauce is in quart sized
jars that work with Ball and Kerr lids and rings. Note that
the Classico's manufacturer does not recommend reuse of their jars:
see what they have to say on this
page:
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What did I do wrong if my jars
spoil?
Tomatoes are a low acid fruit - adding lemon juice
helps, processing at least 35 minutes in the water bath canner, or better still,
using a pressure canner almost eliminates spoilage. If you don't have a
pressure canner, you must boost the acid level of the sauce, by adding 2
tablespoons of lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid per quart of
sauce.
The question everyone asks: Can you add meat?
With a water bath canner, absolutely, definitely NOT. The
temperatures do not get high enough to kill the type of bacteria that can attack
meat and make you sick, or even kill you. However, with a pressure canner,
it IS possible. I have
complete directions here! I don't do it, simply because... have you ever tasted
canned meat? Yes, it is called SPAM. My recommendation is to can
without the meat and add fresh browned ground meat or meatballs when you use the
sauce!
Meat, Part 2 - I noticed you said it is best not to put meat in the sauce,
as it might spoil as a child my mom canned all her meat with nothing but salt in
it as she had no freezer. I cannot remember a problem with it going bad. She
submerged the jars in a canning pot with a wire rack under it and boiled it for
4 hours always making sure the meat in the jar was covered with water so it
would not spoil, also the jars kept covered with water at all times for four
hours of boiling. "
It is
statistically possible to engage in a very dangerous activity and still
experience no harm. For example, one of my father's friends charged the
beach at Iwo Jima in World War 2, (definitely, one of the riskiest things
you could do) and yet he survived without a scratch, while 7 of 10 of his
platoon died. Canning meat in a water bath is the same.
The problem is
that Botulism is not killed by temperatures under 240. Water baths only
reach 212. You could boil it for 4 days and the botulism would still
survive. By the time you ate the jars, enough may not have grow to make you
ill. But it is still very, very dangerous.
I could send
you dozens and dozens of statements supporting what I stated above from many
universities and food authorities. Here is one example from the
University of Maine:
Match the canner to the food
There are two types of home canning methods:
boiling-water-bath canners and pressure canners. The type of canner that you
use should be based upon the type of food you are preserving. According to
UMaine Food ScienceSpecialist Beth Calder, fruits, pickled foods,
sauerkraut, marmalades, fruit spreads, jams, jellies, fruit butters (except
for pumpkin) and salsa can be safely preserved using the water-bath canning
method. "However, make sure you use a scientifically tested recipe from a
reputable resource," she says.
All other foods should be preserved using a
pressure canner. This is because botulism-producing bacteria produce spores
that can survive boiling water temperatures, but are destroyed using a
pressure canner with the appropriate time and pressure, which reaches
temperatures between 240 and 250 degrees F.
I have read in other homemade spaghetti sauce recipes that you need to
cook the mixture for at least 4-5 hours. Is this necessary?
I suppose if you really want to make sure that absolutely no vitamins
survive, you could cook it that long! :) The only reason people used to tomato
sauce that long was the Roma paste-type tomatoes, with thicker walls, meatier
with fewer seeds and less water didn't exist, so they had to cook it for hours
to get rid of water and thicken it. And of course, modern sauce mixes that
contain a little bit of corn starch as a thickener, also help shorten the time.
How can I make my sauce thicker?
The key is using
tomatoes that have less water – Roma types are best. Big Boy’s and Beefstakes
are very watery. You can boil it down ( a crockpot will do this without a need
to constantly stir). Another simple method is add some canned tomato paste. Beyond
that, Clear-gel starch is approved as a thickener for home canning and works
better than corn starch.
And for those who want to go strictly organic and au naturale, my method of
squeezing out the excess water and seeds eliminates much of the excess juice
(which you can save as tomato juice for drinking) and lets you start with a
thicker tomato pulp which means much shorter cooking time!
(called "corn flour" in the UK)
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